00:00So what happens when we die? Science says the system shuts down. The body stops working and
00:09now there is a twist. Did you know that science has its own version of life after death?
00:16Not for your soul, but at least for your body.
00:21They call him the silent teacher.
00:22In a medical classroom in Uganda, East Africa, a real human skeleton lies still.
00:33A quiet contributor to medical discovery.
00:39To have a feeling of a human being, we need to work within a future of a human being and that can be a cadaver.
00:49Modekai Waziwu leads the Uganda Anatome Society. This morning, he guides medical students through
00:57lessons on life taught by the remains of the dead.
01:00This brain also has two points. That's why you have the time to experiment, to learn different things,
01:06to make mistakes. I can't dissect a mannequin and actually get to the real nitty-gritties and the
01:13details of the tissues, the nerves, the veins as they are in a human body.
01:17But where do these silent teachers come from?
01:21Unlike in places like South Africa, Europe or the United States, where former body donation programs
01:28are well established, in Uganda, medical students have mostly learned from unclaimed bodies,
01:36turning them into their teachers with reverence and dignity.
01:40We're advancing. Things are changing in the world.
01:44Professor Erisa Mwaka heads the Department of Anatomy at Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala.
01:53It is Uganda's oldest medical school and one of Africa's most respected, known among others for its
02:01groundbreaking research in infectious diseases like malaria, TB, HIV-AIDS and contributions to Ebola response.
02:10Mwaka has a special passion for medical ethics. He believes it is better for individuals to pledge their bodies to science willingly and with consent,
02:23rather than relying on bodies that never consented.
02:26There is what we call altruism whereby actually for the good, I mean for the greater good of humanity, you know, people volunteer, for example, to donate blood,
02:39you know, to participate in research.
02:43Of course, not everyone agrees. Many say, when I die, do not touch my body. Others say, leave the matter to their ancestors. But there are those who say, well, I could be gone, but I could still be relevant and help the living.
03:01One Ugandan who is ready to answer that call is Ronald Sima, a father of two in his forties.
03:08I recently heard they were advertising onto the news and they're calling people to go and be volunteers for the HIV-AIDS vaccine.
03:17Those are heroes. This body just sitting there, yet if it belongs to a science fraternity somewhere, it would be adding value to the world.
03:25In Uganda, death is generally sacred. The idea of giving your body to science remains almost unthinkable.
03:33Uganda has no formal law on body donation yet, but Professor Mwaka is working on policy guidelines, the first step towards legislation.
03:45We are proposing a bill that will go, you know, that we hope will go to parliament, then to cabinet, and if successful, it will be enacted into law.
03:56Sima, however, is not waiting for the law. He believes that every change begins with someone.
04:03And that someone is him.
04:05Maybe the diseases that we're suffering from today will be eradicated because of this body not being wasted and decomposing to infinity in the ground.
04:18And back in the classroom, the silent teacher continues to speak through every bone and every lesson.
04:25Thanks to people like Sima, perhaps one day he will not stand silent and alone, but among many others who choose to teach and advance science through their final gift.
04:38So what would be your choice?
04:41Let's get started.
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